Wolves vs Newcastle: Match Preview and Predictions

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• O’Neil confirmed Hwang Hee-chan won’t be available for the match. He said it will need “more assessments” to establish a timescale but the forward “hopefully won’t be [out] long”.

• He added: “I knew there were some players who were a risk for the midweek game but Hee-Chan felt fine. All his recovery stuff had gone well and he was one we thought was able and ready to go again, but things like that can happen.”

• On the progress Wolves have made this campaign, he said: “Extremely happy. Every single player in the squad should be extremely proud of what they have managed to produce. We know how small the squad is and we have spent a lot of this season without key players… they have continued to surprise people through this season and I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond to another challenge [against Newcastle].”

• O’Neil said the squad have done “a lot of work every day about how important it is to be together” and that they “have pushed people every day to remind them of standards in everything we do, how we respond to disappointment, not allowing people to go off on their own and show disconnect from the team”.

• He said Newcastle have “suffered” because of injuries, but added: “They are coming back and [Alexander] Isak being back is a massive plus, so they will be a threat. They are a good side and will return to form. We face a Newcastle side we know will be dangerous.”

• On setting the bar high this season, he said: “I want the bar set high and I understand that you can fall below it and it is failing. But, falling below a bar that has been set is not a problem, it is how you do it and go about it. If we had failed against Brighton giving what we gave, that would have been acceptable to me.”

• Asked how difficult it will be to keep up, he said: “If the expectation is to see us win the FA Cup and finish in Europe then this will be the toughest part of the season, for sure. We will need to push and do more than we have done so far, and we will be tested every week against good sides.”

• He added: “That is the challenge. None of us want to sit here and think, ‘oh we have 38 [points], that’s great, 38 might even keep us up so let’s have a chillout and everyone can tell us how good we were for the first five months’. That is not where we are. We keep pushing for every game and see where we can get to and enjoy it.”